We are traveling from Salzburg to Venice. And later from Rome to Torino. I see there are night trains available, but it looks like we would only be on the actual night train (after having to change trains earlier) from about 0:30 or 1:00 to about 5:30 - 7:00. And it seems to stop in a lot of places along the way. It doesn't sound too restful, but since I've never done anything like this I don't want to judge unfairly. It would help us to arrive in Venice (or Torino) early in the day in order to have an extra day of touring, but it won't help if we don't get any sleep that night. Please speak from experience to help me decide what to do. Thanks
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
I like night trains, but I have no trouble sleeping on them.
For your routes, here are timetables I found at www.bahn.de for DIRECT night trains:
Leave Salzburg at 01:38 and arrive at Venezia Santa Lucia at 08:45.
Leave Roma Termini at 21:16 and arrive at Torino Porta Nuova at 07:20.
Leave Roma Ostiense at 00:05 and arrive at Torino Porta Nuova at 08:20.
Posted by
Virginia, USA
5516 posts
I think it really depends on how soundly you sleep. Some people love them. A question for you. Are you able to sleep on an airplane? I never fall asleep on overnight flights and have the same problem on overnight trains.
I took many night trains when I was younger and on a budget to save money. I never could sleep well on them, but you do get to stretch out. The pros are that you save a night of hotel costs and have more daytime to tour. The con for me is the lack of sleep. Personally, I don't like night trains because I always arrive tired, with a headache, and in want of a shower ... so now I generally avoid them.
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
Gail: the subject of night trains has been discussed frequently here in the last year. You can retrieve these discussions by using the search box in the upper right corner, experiement with what search words retrieve the most helpful topics. You have already figured out what the main issue is: that most people who write in here reeport they don't sleep well on night trains. So the issue becomes whether you are a sound sleeper and whether the advantages of night trains are worth the disadvantage of arriving tired. The previous discussions will tell you what experienced travelers say about both sides of this issue.
Posted by
Boston
4132 posts
Sleep can be problematic, though I've always been able to get some rest even on noisy trips. Some people sleep just fine on them.
If noise is an issue, it helps if you can tolerate earplugs.
If you are tempted to try, I would pick a ride for which the "sleep" period is at least seven hours. That is, I think I would pass on a trip in which the night-train part runs "from about 0:30 or 1:00 to about 5:30 - 7:00."
You may find that longer night-train segments are available even if by a more-roundabout route.
Posted by
Austin TX after living in Boulder CO for 25 years
1166 posts
The answer would be to try a night train for one of the routes! Our family of four took a night train (and did the couchette so we actually had a place to sleep) from Zurich to Paris. I didn't sleep well either even though I had a flat bed to sleep in! I think I was afraid that we would oversleep! But getting there for a full day of sightseeing was great. And you can't beat the crazy photos we ended up with and the stories we had to tell.